Aggie Family Pack: More buildings on campus horizon

Photo: Joel Swift and Joe Dixon of Architects and Engineers and Bob Segar

Surveying construction for the veterinary school are, from left to right, Joel Swift and Joe Dixon of Architects and Engineers and Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis)

If you think you see a new building under construction every time you visit campus, your eyes aren't fooling you. UC Davis is in the middle phase of a large growth spurt of student-oriented buildings to accommodate increased numbers of undergraduates and also to provide much-needed upgrades to older facilities.

"These new facilities will provide a higher-quality experience for students at UC Davis and add to their academic, social and recreational environment," says campus planner Bob Segar.

Much of the new construction on student recreational buildings is the result of two referenda passed by students in 1999 and 2002 that raised student fees to help pay for new facilities such as the Activities and Recreation Center and the Ted and Rand Schaal Aquatics Center, completed in 2004.

Sports facilities

Student Molly Van Houten gets her favorite horse, Pele, ready for a jumping lesson. (Debbie Aldridge/UC Davis)

Those funds also will help support the $30 million stadium under way at the corner of Hutchison and La Rue, just east of Highway 113. Expected to open in early 2007, the stadium will seat approximately 12,000 people in the first phase of a design that can expand to seat 30,000 for football, soccer, lacrosse and special events. With the track staying at Toomey Field, fans in the new stadium will be closer to the field and have better views of the action, Segar says.

"It's clear that the campus needed to upgrade some of its facilities, and thankfully students passed a referendum to accomplish that," says Cynthia Ingham Bachman, associate director of capital and space planning. "It would be very difficult otherwise."

Engineering and physical sciences

This architectural rendering of Giedt Hall shows a front entrance with ample bicycle parking for the energy-efficient building. (Courtesy, MBT Architecture)

Just north of Kemper Hall, a group of "temporary" buildings from the 1960s has given way to the construction of Warren and Leta Giedt Hall. This $7.5 million, 10,250 square foot project, to primarily serve students in engineering and the physical sciences, is expected to open in the spring of 2008. It will contain three large classrooms that seat 150 to 200 students and two smaller classrooms that seat 40. Warren Giedt, an alumnus from the engineering department, and Ted Schaal, an alumnus from geology, contributed to this building.

Housing and dining facilities

With the rise in student numbers, the campus needed to add 400 new dorm rooms to the Tercero complex. The $45 million project was completed in August 2005 and welcomed students in the fall. The Tercero Dining Commons also underwent a $23 million expansion and remodel that made it similar to the new Segundo dining commons — with the food at both receiving rave reviews from students, parents, faculty and staff, Segar says.

Although student fees help cover recreational building costs, housing projects are funded through campus housing reserves.

Vet school facilities

With the completion this fall of Gladys Valley Hall, the new veterinary medicine instructional facility, and the Veterinary Medicine '3A' office and lab building in the spring of 2007, the vet school will have all of its classrooms and teaching facilities consolidated near the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital for the first time. Research laboratories will remain in Haring Hall until the completion of Veterinary Medicine 3B 9, expected by 2010-11.

The $25 million Gladys Valley Hall will house 34,810 square feet: 22,870 for teaching, 7,600 for student support and 4,340 for alumni, student and faculty use. Veterinary Medicine 3A is expected to cost $80 million and will consist of just more than 96,000 square feet in lab and classroom space.